RecipeChirasi-zushi (scattered sushi)

A professional Japanese chef taught us how to cook Japanese dishes at his ryokan. The main dish, chirashi-zushi, is a delicious and beautiful dish created by a professional chef using his many tricks of the trade.

Directions

1Make Tuna marinated in soy sauce. For the marinade, heat the mirin and sake in a pot until the alcohol has evaporated. Add the soy sauce and boil. Turn off the heat and let it cool down. Place the tuna slices in the marinade and set aside for about half a day.

2Make sea bream marinated with kombu kelp. Sprinkle the sea bream slices with some salt, place on one sheet of the kombu, and cover with the other piece of kombu. Refrigerate for about 1 hour.

3Make Sushi rice. Mix the vinegar, sugar, and salt well to make the sushi vinegar. Spread the white rice in a sushi bowl (or any large bowl), sprinkle about one quarter of the sushi vinegar evenly over the rice, and mix using a cutting motion. Add the remaining sushi vinegar to the rice little by little to taste.

4Make Marinated myoga. . Parboil the myoga, sprinkle with a little salt, and cool down. Mix well the vinegar, water, and sugar and add the myoga to the mixture. Marinate for more than half a day.

5Remove the scales from the striped grunt, fillet into 3 pieces, and remove the bones.

6Make some light cuts on the skin of the striped grunt, char the skin with a kitchen torch, and place in ice water.

7Slice the striped grunt, tuna, and sea bream, sashimi style. Squeeze the juice from the marinated myoga and each piece into half lengthwise.

8Cut the okra pods into half lengthwise.

9Prepare the sushi rice and place in a serving container.

10Decorate the sushi rice with the prepared ingredients.

Tips

Choose your favorite seasonal ingredients for chirashi-zushi. Striped grunt is in season from spring to autumn. Japanese rockfish (mebaru) is also recommended in spring and autumn. Sea bream is available almost year round, so it is very convenient to use. If it is difficult to fillet striped grunt into 3 pieces, ask a fish seller to do it for you. Light cuts on the skin makes it easier to eat. If you need to buy a kitchen torch, they are usually available at stores that sell items for making sweets.Dish up the sushi rice without pressing it down to keep it fluffy. The rice should easily separate in your mouth. The trick to making a beautiful the dish is to have the topping ingredients higher in the center. Even if the toppings collapse during decoration, don’t touch them with chopsticks too much, as it would cause them to collapse more. Decoration should be carefully yet quickly carried out.